Monitoring and managing equipment in remote locations presents a challenging task, particularly for equipment leasing companies. This task becomes even more challenging for mobile equipment such as heavy construction vehicles. Notification in real time of problems which occur in the field can prove to be very useful in scheduling maintenance. Operation of equipment in such a manner which may create additional equipment problems or which may exacerbate existing problems remains problematic.
There are currently systems which monitor the operation of a remotely located piece of equipment including its location. In instances where the machine is operating outside of a designated geographical area, there exist disclosure of security systems which serve to shut down a piece of equipment. See U.S. Published Patent Application 200040073468 to Vyas et al. Additionally, while it is known that existing systems can give alerts or alarms to equipment operators in case of equipment malfunction, until now, no systems currently exist which allow the equipment owner or leasing entity to take control of equipment when those alerts or alarms are ignored so as to prevent equipment damage.
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